Seattle Public Library - Washington Center for the Book - Ernest Gaines Toolbox
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Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library
If All of Seattle Read the Same Book
A Reading Group Toolbox for the Works
of Ernest Gaines:
A Lesson Before Dying
In My Father's House
A Gathering of Old Men
The Autobiography of Miss
Jane Pittman
Toolbox Contents
For further information, contact:
Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library
1000 Fourth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104-1193
Nancy Pearl, Executive Director
(nancy.pearl@spl.org)
(206) 386-4184
Christine Higashi, Associate Director (chris.higashi@spl.org)
(206) 386-4650
Fax (206) 386-4672
Web Page: http://www.spl.org/wacentbook/centbook.html
Contributors to this reading group toolbox include: Jennifer Baker, Seattle Public
Library librarian; Cynthia Burress, intern; Chris Higashi; and Nancy Pearl.
This reading group toolbox was compiled by the Washington Center for the Book
at the Seattle Public Library. It was made possible through a grant from the Lila
Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund. The Washington Center for the Book is one of
eight member organizations of the Audiences for Literature Network, a national
network of literary centers made possible by the Fund.
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Seattle Public Library - Washington Center for the Book - Ernest Gaines Toolbox: Contents
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Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library
If All of Seattle Read the Same Book
A Reading Group Toolbox for the Works of Ernest Gaines
Contents:
An Introduction to Ernest Gaines: A Brief Biography
A Conversation with Ernest Gaines
A Lesson Before Dying
In My Father's House
A Gathering of Old Men
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Book Club How-To's: Tips for Book Discussions
Annotated Bibliography of Works by Ernest Gaines
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Seattle Public Library - Washington Center for the Book - Ernest Gaines Toolbox: Biography
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Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library
Reading Group Toolbox Contents
A Reading Group Toolbox for the Works of Ernest Gaines
An Introduction to Ernest Gaines:
A Brief Biography
To Ernest Gaines, nothing is more important than writing. Gaines illustrates this
point with a story. "Someone once asked a guy who rode in a rodeo, 'Why do you
ride the bucking horses?' He answered, 'Well, I'll tell you, I'm too nervous to
steal, and I'm too lazy to work.'"
Gaines was born in 1933 on River Lake
Plantation in Pointe Coupée Parish near the town
of New Roads, Louisiana (which he would call
Bayonne Parish in his novels).
Gaines was the oldest of 12 children, raised by
his Aunt Augusteen, who was crippled and could
only crawl to get around the house. Augusteen
was the inspiration for Miss Jane Pittman. Gaines
dedicated the book to his aunt, "who did not walk
a day in her life but who taught me the
importance of standing."
Gaines's first six years of school were in the
plantation church, where a visiting teacher taught
five to six months a year, depending on when the
children were needed to work in the fields.
Schools for black children in Pointe Coupée didn't continue past the eighth
grade, and when he was15, Gaines moved to San Francisco to join his mother
and stepfather, who had gone there a few years before. This allowed him to
continue his schooling. Gaines recalls, "I didn't want to leave my aunt and my
family and friends, but they wanted me to be educated."
It was in San Francisco that Gaines first entered a library-in New Roads, the
library had been reserved for whites. Of this experience, Gaines says: "I had a
choice of going to three places - the library, the YMCA, and the movie house. I
didn't have any money so I couldn't go to the movies. I went to the YMCA and I
got beaten up by a guy who knew how to box, so I quit that and went to the
library. Little old ladies can't hit that hard."
From that point, literature set him on a course from which he never strayed. At
16, Gaines states, "I knew I wanted to be a writer, and by the age of 20 I knew I
wouldn't let any obstacle get in the way - family, religion, politics, racism or
anything else."
"I was reading lots of books and I realized that what I was trying to do was find
myself through literature and it was then that I tried to write. I was terribly lonely
for the people I had left, so I spent all my time in the library. I went there hoping
to find some books about the people I'd known at home. But those people
weren't in any of the books. So ultimately, I guess, I had to write them in."
His first novel was written at age 17 while babysitting his youngest brother. He
wrapped it in brown paper, tied it with string, and sent it to a New York publisher,
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who promptly rejected it. Gaines burned the manuscript, but later rewrote it to
become his first published novel, Catherine Carmier.
After earning a degree in literature from San Francisco State University, Gaines
spent two years in the Army. In 1958, after publishing a few short stories, he won
a Wallace Stegner creative writing fellowship to Stanford University, which
enabled him to quit his job at an insurance company and devote himself to his
writing.
Gaines published his first short story, The Turtles, in 1956 in a college magazine.
Since then, he has written eight books of fiction, including Catherine Carmier, Of
Love and Dust, a story collection entitled Bloodline, The Autobiography of Miss
Jane Pittman, the children's book A Long Day in November, In My Father's
House, A Gathering of Old Men, and A Lesson Before Dying.
Gaines's honors and awards include nine honorary doctorates and the Humanist
of the Year. He has been honored twice by the Louisiana Library Association and
has twice received the California Commonwealth Award. He received a National
Endowment for the Arts grant in 1967 and was made a Guggenheim Fellow in
1971. Shortly after A Lesson Before Dying was published, Gaines received a
MacArthur Foundation grant, for writings of "rare historical resonance." His work
has been translated into 12 different languages, and four of his works, The
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, The Sky Is Gray, A Gathering of Old Men,
and A Lesson Before Dying, have been made into films.
Although much of his fiction deals with the racial tensions that permeate the rural
South, Gaines says he does not deliberately try to make an issue out of race.
One of his more complicated novels, A Gathering of Old Men, uses the unusual
narrative technique of having the story told by multiple characters, all of whom
are peripheral to the central action of the tale. This stands in sharp contrast to his
most celebrated and well-known work, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,
a fictional autobiography told entirely from the viewpoint of Jane Pittman, a
former slave.
Of Jane Pittman, Gaines says, "For about a year I used the multiple point of view,
but I was not getting what I wanted. I put it aside and started over from her point
of view."
A Lesson Before Dying, his most recent book and his first novel in 10 years, was
written over a period of seven summers in between teaching duties at the
University of Southern Louisiana in Lafayette. Lesson is the story of two young
black men, each in his own way trapped in a small Louisiana town in the late
1940s. One, Jefferson, is awaiting execution for a murder he didn't commit; the
other, Grant Wiggins, is a teacher whose sense of duty won't let him leave the
home he has come to hate. When Grant reluctantly agrees to teach Jefferson
about being proud of who he is, they each learn important lessons about
themselves. This novel, one of Gaines's most commercially and critically
successful, won the 1993 National Book Critics' Circle Award and was adapted
into a highly acclaimed movie for the HBO cable channel.
As his greatest influences, Gaines cites the work of Faulkner, Hemingway,
Twain, Flaubert, and Turgenev. "I read everything," he said. "But these are the
writers that I find in my earlier writing that I was emulating. Sometimes I had
Faulkner's rhythms and Hemingway's sentences and Twain's humor."
Besides working as an author, Gaines has been an instructor of creative writing.
He currently conducts a seminar every spring semester at the University of
Southwestern Louisiana, where he has taught for more than ten years and is
writer-in-residence.
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Gaines is married to Dianne Sauley, a Miami lawyer. He married in 1993, at age
60, his first marriage. "In the younger days, I knew I wanted to be a writer and
often thought marriage - really, family - would interfere with writing and I couldn't
let that happen." Gaines divides his time between Miami and Lafayette,
Louisiana.
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Seattle Public Library - Washington Center for the Book - Ernest Gaines Toolbox: A Conversatio... Page 1 of 3
Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library
Reading Group Toolbox Contents
A Reading Group Toolbox for the Works of Ernest Gaines
A Conversation with Ernest Gaines
Reprinted with permission. "Ernest J. Gaines talks to Bernard Magnier" appeared originally in The UNESCO
Courier, Vol. 48, April 1995. Bernard Magnier is a French journalist specializing in African literature.
Q: What were the first books you read, the ones that most
influenced you?
A: I liked to read fiction. There were no black writers and so I
started by reading Southern writers. But I didn't think much of the
demeaning way they spoke of blacks. I turned to European writers,
particularly the Russians - Gogol, Turgenev, and Chekhov - who
described peasant life in a rich and interesting way. My first novel,
Catherine Carmier, was inspired by Turgenev's Fathers and Sons.
Later I discovered Maupassant and Flaubert.
Q: Did you take these writers as your models?
A: All these European writers only half satisfied me because they
only talked about their own people, and I couldn't find myself in their
work. I wanted to talk about my people, so when I was around
sixteen or seventeen years old I started to write.
When I was twenty, after I had done my military service, I went to
college, where I studied creative writing and English literature. It
was there that I discovered Hemingway, Steinbeck, Joyce, and
others. But none of these great novelists had any particular
influence on me. As someone once said, to take from one person is
plagiarism but to take from everybody is genius!
Q: What was your first published work?
A: A short story called The Turtles, which appeared in 1956 in a
college literary review in San Francisco. I am very proud of this
short story. It has just been republished by the journal of the
university where I teach now. Thirty-five years later!
Q: When did you turn to writing novels?
A: A literary agent read The Turtles and liked it. She contacted my
professor, and she encouraged me to write my first novel. I had
already written what I thought was a novel when I was nineteen
years old. I sent it to a publisher, who turned it down and sent it
back to me. I threw it on the fire. Ten years later, I went back to this
novel, which took me five years to finish and gave me a lot of
trouble. But all the time I was learning how to write. After it had
been substantially rewritten a dozen or more times and returned to
me seven times by the publisher, it was finally accepted. That was
how Catherine Carmier came to be published by Atheneum.
Q: In the United States you are thought of as a "Southern
writer." Do you think that label accurately describes a literary
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category or is it too narrow?
A: It's too narrow. I have been categorized "a black writer," "a
Southern writer," "a Californian writer" because I lived in California,
"a Louisiana writer" because I wrote about Louisiana. . .I don't feel I
fit into any of these categories. I just try to be a decent writer.
Q: And yet almost all your novels are set in a small area,
Bayonne Parish. . .
A: All the great writers are regionalists. Faulkner wrote about
Mississippi, Homer about Greece, Balzac about Paris,
Shakespeare about a kind of England. But that doesn't mean
they're not universal. People write about what they know best, and
readers respond to that wherever they happen to live. The
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman has been translated into
several languages, and readers of all races have written to me and
said they felt that the old lady was somebody they recognized.
Q: In a way, isn't your Bayonne Parish the Louisiana
equivalent of Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, in
Mississippi?
A: I did get the inspiration for the parish of Bayonne from Faulkner's
mythical Yoknapatawpha County and the use of the multiple pointof-view in novels. But Faulkner himself was influenced by
Sherwood Anderson, whom he knew, and by James Joyce's
writings about Dublin. So just as Faulkner inherited from them, I
inherited from Faulkner. It's a continuing process.
I certainly feel close to Faulkner. We both belong to the South. We
write about the same things - life in small towns, the everyday
struggles of poor people, the influence of big landowners on small
farmers, race problems. And Mississippi isn't far from Louisiana.
Q: In your novels a breaking point often occurs as a result of a
love affair, as if this kind of relationship is a crucible for all
kinds of taboos and conflicts.
A: That is true of some of my novels, but not all. A Lesson Before
Dying is the story of an uneducated young black condemned to
death for a crime he did not commit and a black schoolteacher who
restores his dignity before he dies. Love relationships are not the
only situations that breed conflict; it is constant. The major conflict
in my work is when the black male attempts to go beyond the line
that is drawn for him. But you've also got conflict between young
and old, between the desire to go back to the place where you were
born or to stay where you are, between religious feeling and
atheism. . .There has to be a conflict before there can be a story
and before the story reveals racial tensions.
Q: Do you feel that there is a black cultural community in the
United States?
A: I don't think there is any kind of school of black culture in the
United States today. The expression "black community" is very
vague. Is there a white community? I don't know. Nevertheless,
black writers tackle the problems they know well, but with different
approaches. Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, and I
share common preoccupations.
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Q: These days there are plenty of meetings, anthologies, book
series, and critical works on black African and Afro-American
literature and so on. Do you think it's ludicrous to lump
together writers from the United States, the Caribbean, and
Africa because they are black?
A: No, not at all! I approve of this kind of thing. It is important for us
black writers to meet and talk because our works are not taught as
much in colleges as those of whites. All the same I don't spend too
much time at those gatherings; I prefer staying at home and writing.
Q: Louisiana is presented in your work as a land of conflict but
also as a place of meetings, of peace and compromise. In spite
of "the sound and the fury," your writing seems more serene
than that of other black writers.
A: I write from my own viewpoint. I don't see the world as Jimmy
Baldwin or Richard Wright did. I may not have suffered racism as
directly as either one of those men did, and I haven't lived in large
cities as they did - in Harlem or Chicago's south side - but we have
fought for the same causes. I went to California when I was very
young, to a decent, small town where I was completely integrated
into the school. There were people of all backgrounds. There were
whites, hispanics, native Americans, and Asians.
That doesn't stop me from writing about serious subjects. In A
Lesson Before Dying, an innocent person is sent to the electric
chair. I was criticized for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,
because at the time of the civil rights struggle the life of a woman
aged 110 was not a topical subject! For me it was primarily a piece
of literary work, sure, but I also described in this book terrible
events that were not unconnected with what was going on. I'm
doing what the others are doing, just more quietly.
Q: Do you think that things have changed in North America in
this respect?
A: There have been some changes in the last forty years, but I don't
feel that writers and artists have changed very much in their choice
of subjects. The change has not been substantial enough to halt
the struggle against racism. The race problem still exists - that's
why I have been writing about it for forty years. On the other hand,
the work of black writers is certainly far more widely accepted now.
Today I am accepted on the same footing as others, and that would
have been impossible thirty years ago.
Q: Have things changed in everyday life? A: Some people have
changed, especially in educated circles. The situation has changed
for some people, progress has been made. People have accepted
black people's participation in public life. Times have changed from
the days when Nat King Cole had his show cancelled simply
because he held a white female's hand up on the stage at the end
of a show when the credits were going on. But so many serious
problems are still unsolved - education and unemployment, for
example. There's still a long way to go.
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Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library
Reading Group Toolbox Contents
A Reading Group Toolbox for the Works of Ernest Gaines
A Lesson Before Dying
With this book, only one question really needs to be asked: What is the lesson learned and who
learned it? That said, here are some additional questions that might enrich the discussion.
1. What does the first sentence of the book mean, when Grant Wiggins says,
"I was not there, yet I was there"?
2. Why does Miss Emma suddenly decide to take action against the image
of Jefferson as a "hog"?
3. What does Miss Emma mean when she instructs Grant to teach Jefferson
to walk to the chair as a man? Why does she choose Grant? (Chapter 2.)
4. What hidden agenda might Miss Emma and Grant's Tante Lou have in
persuading Grant to visit Jefferson in his cell? How do they force him to do
something he clearly doesn't want to do?
5. How does Gaines create a sense of time for the reader? What are some of the clues that indicate
when the story takes place?
6. Why does the school superintendent check the children's hands and teeth and ignore Grant's request
for materials? What does he mean when he tells Grant that he's doing a good job as teacher? Is
Grant a good teacher? (Chapter 7.)
7. Educated people and those who wanted to "make it" in life needed to leave their small town and their
plantation life. Knowing this, Grant desperately wants to leave, yet he feels called to stay. At the same
time, he wonders if he is doing any good, since things seem to say the same. What is he doing for his
students and his community? What would happen if he left? Would leaving constitute "flight"?
8. What, according to Grant, is the burden of the educated black man?
9. The Creole teacher Matthew Antoine says that everyone needs to feel superior to someone else.
(Chapter 8.) How does racism fit this contention?
10. Why is Grant so opposed to visiting and talking to Jefferson in jail?
11. Why do the men, including Jefferson, have so much trouble believing while the women rely so heavily
on their faith? If Grant isn't a believer, why does he teach Bible verses to the children? Why does he
hope Jefferson will convert?
12. In Chapter 21, Grant explains the problems of manliness for African American men. How does Grant
cope with it? How does he change during the course of the story?
13. Explain the role food plays in the life of this community. Why is it so important to Miss Emma that
Jefferson eat her food each time she sends or takes it to the jail? Why does he at first refuse to eat,
but begin to accept food when the children send him nuts?
14. What do the radio and the journal represent for Jefferson? Does Grant actually help him become a
man?
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15. What are some of the subtle ways Grant asserts his freedom and his individual rights?
16. Discuss the author's use of sustained irony and intermittent humor. Why does this style work, despite
the serious nature of the themes treated in the book?
17. Does Jefferson believe in God by the end of the story? If so, describe his concept of God. What
allows him to "walk" to the chair? What does Grant admire about him?
18. What are the lessons each main character learns, before the execution of the innocent man? Think
about the sheriff and Paul Bonin, Reverend Ambrose, Tante Lou, Miss Emma, Vivian, Grant, the
school children, and Jefferson himself.
19. Grant asks himself some tough questions in the last chapter. How do you answer them? "Why wasn't
I there? Why wasn't I standing beside him? Why wasn't my arm around him? Why?" "Why wasn't I
back there with the children? Why wasn't I down on my knees? Why?"
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Seattle Public Library - Washington Center for the Book - Ernest Gaines Toolbox: In My Father's... Page 1 of 1
Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library
Reading Group Toolbox Contents
A Reading Group Toolbox for the Works of Ernest Gaines
In My Father's House
1. How does the Bible passage that the title is taken from relate to the story?
"In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told
you." (John 14:2)
2. How does Gaines build up the suspense to the confrontation between the
sinister stranger and Reverend Martin?
3. What prevents Phillip from admitting his problem to Alma, or even to his
closest friends, all of whom know he is struggling?
4. Why is Phillip so ashamed about his "fainting" spell when he first sees his son at the party? What do
his dreams in Chapter 5 convey about his underlying problem?
5. What is your opinion of the Reverend Phillip Martin? Why is the story so compelling when the main
character proves to be in some ways despicable?
6. When confronted with his past and his feelings of helplessness and guilt, why can't Phillip turn to his
God? What, according to the author, is the cure for his paralysis?
7. Discuss the domino effect of the evil done by Phillip in his youth to the institution of slavery in
America. How was justice served in the story? Is there hope for Phillip and his family?
8. Why couldn't Phillip and Robert X talk to each other when they finally tried? What is the significance
of Etienne taking the name Robert X?
9. Does Phillip's decision to have his son released from jail at the expense of the civil rights group's
goals seem consistent with his character? Was the leadership committee right to fire him?
10. What does Phillip's trip into the neighborhood of his youth symbolize? What are some of the images
he is forced to encounter there? How will he come to terms with them?
11. As Beverly points out in the last chapter, even God can't change the past. How should Phillip Martin
continue his life?
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Reading Group Toolbox Contents
A Reading Group Toolbox for the Works of Ernest Gaines
A Gathering of Old Men
1. Why does the author tell the story from so many different perspectives?
What does each character's viewpoint represent? How distinctive were
the 17 voices? What was the main message of each?
2. What is the role played by the black women in this story? How do their
men regard them?
3. Why do all these old men come together at the bidding of a white woman? What is their assumption
about the truth of what happened and their view of justice?
4. What is Mat saying about his religious beliefs when he tells Chimley, "He works in mysterious ways,
don't He"?
5. On their way to Mathu's place, why do the old men linger in the graveyard? What does the cemetery
represent?
6. Discuss the difficult positions in which the white people find themselves in this story: Candy Marshall,
defending her black "godfather"; Sheriff Mapes, who knows the men are masking the truth, but can
only deal with them violently; and Lou Dimes, the ineffectual fiancé. What is the right thing for each to
do in their circumstances? How did they get into these positions? How much of what happened is
their fault?
7. Why does Sheriff Mapes sit down and seem to give up during the shootout, even though he was only
slightly wounded?
8. Does Gaines instill a kind of hope in the reader's mind as the novel progresses? Is the end of the
novel hopeful or despairing?
9. Why does Fix Boutan allow his son Gil to talk him out of retaliating directly for Beau's death? Does Fix
have a hand in the confrontation by Luke Will and his friends with the old men? Is the confrontation
unavoidable?
10. What makes the judge's ruling fair at the trial? What does the aside mean: ("That was like telling a
Louisianian never to say Mardi Gras or Huey Long")? Why does the author choose a humorous court
scene to end a book largely about justice?
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Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library
Reading Group Toolbox Contents
A Reading Group Toolbox for the Works of Ernest Gaines
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
1. This book was first published in 1971. Discuss the effect a book like this
would have on an American culture just emerging from the Civil Rights
movement of the 1960's. How does it compare with other 20th century
novels written by African Americans?
2. Miss Jane is initially reticent about telling her story. Does she want the
story told? Why or why not?
3. Why did Jane and Ned move on from the river house full of children but stay at the plantation rather
than head north? Why did Jane give up her dream of living free in the North?
4. What does the "hoo-doo" Madame Gautier mean when she tells Miss Jane in the chapter "Man's
Way" that "slavery made you barren" and that's why Joe must ride the horses to "prove he is a man"?
5. What is Ned trying to accomplish with his words to the children and with his school building ("The
Sermon at the River")? What is his definition of a "black American"? How would that black American
be looked upon today?
6. Why does Tee Bob's love for the teacher Mary Agnes kill him ("Samson House")? What does the
dialogue about Tee Bob's death mean: "He was bound to kill himself anyhow. One day. He had to.
For our sins"?
7. Where does Miss Jane's courage come from? What sets her apart from the other people in the
community?
8. What does Miss Jane mean when she says "The colored has suffered in this world, and that is true,
but we know still the Lord's been good to us"? (p. 223 of the Bantam edition.) What would she put on
her list of blessings? Discuss the religious imagery Gaines uses to define a new belief system for
African Americans. See especially Ned's sermon on the river, Jimmy's words in the old church, and
Jane's conversion experience.
9. Discuss the role Jimmy plays as "The One" in the community, as a sort of cultural messiah. Do you
think Jimmy was meant to save his people, or did the people raise him to do so? What prevented
Jane from becoming "The One"?
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Book Club How-to's
Ideas for setting up a book discussion group from the Washington Center for the Book at the
Seattle Public Library. See the Calendar of Events for schedules of book discussion groups at
Seattle Public Library branches.
Before you get started:
Once you figure out these details, the fun begins - reading and talking about good books!
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When, how often, and where will your book club meet?ss
How long will the meetings last?
Will you serve food?
What's the role of the leader, or will you even designate a leader?
What types of books do you want to read - fiction, memoirs, nonfiction, a combination?
Contemporary works, classics, both?
Who makes up the questions for the group to discuss?
Choosing books for discussion:
Choosing what books to read is one of the most enjoyable, often frustrating, and certainly one of the
most important activities the group will undertake. One of the best parts of belonging to a book
discussion group is that you will be introduced to books you're unfamiliar with, and books that fall
outside your regular areas of interest. This is good! Remind people that there can be a big difference
between "a good read" and "a good book for a discussion." (See next section.) It's always a good idea
to select your group's books well in advance (at least three months works well). You don't want to have
to spend time at each meeting deciding what to read next.
What makes a particular book a good one for a discussion?
Probably the most important criteria are that the book be well written and that it explores basic human
truths. Good books for discussion have three-dimensional characters who are forced to make difficult
choices, under difficult situations, whose behavior sometimes makes sense and sometimes doesn't.
Good book discussion books present the author's view of an important truth and sometimes send a
message to the reader.
During a book discussion, what you're really talking about is everything that the author hasn't said - all
those white spaces on the printed page. For this reason, books that are heavily plot driven (most
mysteries, westerns, romances, and science fiction/fantasy) don't lend themselves to book discussions.
In genre novels and some mainstream fiction (and often in nonfiction), the author spells out everything
for the reader, so that there is little to say except, "I loved the book" or "I hated it" or "Isn't that
interesting."
(Incidentally, this "everything that the author hasn't said" idea is why poetry makes such a rich topic for
discussion.)
Other good choices for discussions are books that have ambiguous endings, where the outcome of the
novel is not clear. For example, there is no consensus about what actually happened in Tim O'Brien's In
the Lake of the Woods, Sara Maitland's Ancestral Truths, or James Buchan's The Persian Bride.
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It's important to remind the group that not every member is going to like every book the group chooses.
Everyone may read the same book, but in fact, every member is reading a different book. Everyone
brings her own unique history, memories, background, and influences. Everyone is in a different place
in his life when he reads the book. All of these differences influence the reader's experience of a book
and why she may like or dislike it.
There are also pairs of books that make good discussions. These can be discussed at one meeting or
read and discussed in successive months. Some examples include A Dangerous Friend by Ward Just
and The Quiet American by Graham Greene, The Hours by Michael Cunningham and Mrs. Dalloway by
Virginia Woolf, and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and King Leopold's Ghost by Adam
Hochschild.
Finally, there are some books that raise so many questions and issues that you just can't stop talking
about them. These may not be enjoyed by everyone in the group, but they're bound to lead to spirited
discussions: Ernest Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying, Russell Banks's The Sweet Hereafter, Andre
Dubus III's House of Sand and Fog, Frederick Busch's Girls.
For specific recommendations, see Recommended Books for Discussion.
How to read a book for discussion:
The best books are those that insinuate themselves into your experience: They reveal an important
truth or provide a profound sense of kinship between reader and writer. Searching for, identifying, and
discussing these truths deepen the reader's appreciation of the book.
Reading for a book discussion - whether you are the leader or simply a participant - differs from reading
purely for pleasure.
Asking questions, reading carefully, imagining yourself in the story, analyzing style and structure, and
searching for personal meaning in a work of literature all enhance the work's value and the discussion
potential for your group
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Make notes and mark pages as you go.
Ask questions of yourself and mark down pages you might want to refer back to. Making notes
as you go slows down your reading but saves you the time of searching out important passages
later.
Ask tough questions of yourself and the book.
Asking questions of yourself as you read means you don't know the answer yet, and sometimes
you never will discover the answers. Don't be afraid to ask hard questions because often the
author is presenting difficult issues for that very purpose. Look for questions that may lead to indepth conversations with your group and make the book more meaningful.
Analyze the themes of the book.
Try to analyze the important themes of a book and to consider what premise the author started
with. Imagine an author mulling over the beginnings of the story, asking himself, "what if … "
questions.
Get to know the characters.
When you meet the characters in the book, place yourself at the scene. Think of them as you do
the people around you. Think about their faults and their motives. What would it be like to
interact with them? Are the tone and style of their dialogue authentic? Read portions aloud to
get to know the voices of the characters.
Notice the structure of the book.
Sometimes an author uses the structure of the book to illustrate an important concept or to
create a mood. Notice how the author structured the book. Are chapters prefaced by quotes? If
so, how do they apply to the content of the chapters? How many narrators tell the story? Who
are they? How does the sequence of events unfold to create the mood of the story? Is it written
in flashbacks? Does the order the author chose make sense to you?
Make comparisons to other books and authors.
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Compare the book to others by the same author, or to books by other authors that have a
similar theme or style. Often, themes run through an author's works that are more fully realized
by comparison. Comparing one author's work with another's can help you solidify your opinions,
as well as define for you qualities you may otherwise miss.
Leading the discussion:
Research the author using resources such as Current Biography, Contemporary Authors, and
Something About the Author. Find book reviews in Book Review Digest and Book Review Index. The
Dictionary of Literary Biography gives biographical and critical material. These resources are probably
available at your local library. The Internet is another good source for reviews of the book, biographical
information about the author, and questions for discussion.
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Come prepared with 10 to 15 open-ended questions. Questions that can be answered yes or no
tend to cut off discussion quickly.
Alternatively, ask each member of the group to come with one discussion question. Readers will
focus on different aspects of the book, and everyone will gain new insights as a result.
Questions should be used to guide the discussion and keep it on track, but be ready to let the
discussion flow naturally. Often you'll find that the questions you have prepared will come up
naturally as part of the discussion.
Remind participants that there are not necessarily any right answers to the questions posed.
Don't be afraid to criticize a book, but try to get beyond the "I just didn't like it" statement. What
was it about the book that made it unappealing? The style? The pacing? The characters? Has
the author written other books that you liked better? Did it remind you of another book that you
liked or disliked? Some of the best book discussions center on books that many group members
disliked.
Try to keep a balance in the discussion between personal revelations and reactions and a
response to the book itself. Of course, every reader responds to a book in ways that are
intimately tied to his or her background, upbringing, experiences, and view of the world. A book
about a senseless murder will naturally strike a chord in a reader whose friend was killed. That's
interesting, but what's more interesting is how the author chose to present the murder, or the
author's attitude toward the murderer and victim. It's often too easy to let a group drown in
reminiscences. If that's what the whole group wants to do, that's fine, but keep in mind that then
it's not a book discussion.
Sample questions for your discussion:
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How does the title relate to the book?
How believable are the characters? Which character do you identify with? Is it possible to
identify with any of these characters?
Is the protagonist sympathetic or unsympathetic? Why?
What themes - motherhood, self-discovery, wilderness, etc. - recur throughout the book? How
does the author use these themes? Do they work?
Why do certain characters act the way they act? What motivates a character to do something
that she would not normally do? Does she have an axe to grind, a political ideology, religious
belief, psychological disorder? Is there anything that you would call "out of character"? Does the
character grow over the course of the story?
What types of symbolism are in this novel? What do these objects really represent? How do
characters react to and with these symbolic objects?
Think about the broader social issues that this book is trying to address. For example, what
does the author think about anarchy versus capitalism as a means of life? How is a particular
culture or subculture portrayed? Favorably? Unfavorably?
Where could the story go from here? What is the future of these characters' lives? What would
our lives be like if we lived in this story? Could the civilization portrayed really exist? What if?
What does that character mean when he says "…"? How does the author use certain words and
phrases differently than we would normally use them? Does the author make up new words?
Why would he do that?
How does the arrangement of the book help or detract from the ideas in the novel? Does the
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arrangement contribute to themes or symbols? How is the book structured? Flashbacks? From
one or multiple points of view? Why do you think the author chose to write the book this way?
Does this book fit into or fight against a literary genre? How does the author use [science fiction,
humor, tragedy, romance] to effect in the novel? Does this book typify a regional (southern,
western) novel? How?
How does this book relate to other books you have read? Would this book make a good movie?
Is there a film adaptation of this book? How does the film compare to the book? What is brought
out or played down in the film version?
Is the setting of the book important to the theme? Why? How realistic is the setting?
What did the author attempt to do in the book? Was it successful?
What is the author's worldview?
Were the plot and subplots believable? Were they interesting? What loose ends, if any, did the
author leave?
What is the great strength - or most noticeable weakness - of the book?
For more information, contact:
Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library
800 Pike St.
Seattle, WA 98101
http://www.spl.org/wacentbook/centbook.html
Nancy Pearl, Executive Director
206-386-4184
nancy.pearl@spl.org
Chris Higashi, Associate Director
206-386-4650
chris.higashi@spl.org
This guide was developed by the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library. It was
made possible through a grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. The Washington Center for
the Book is one of eight member organizations of the Audiences for Literature Network, a national
network of literary centers made possible by the Fund.
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Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library
Reading Group Toolbox Contents
A Reading Group Toolbox for the Works of Ernest Gaines
Annotated Bibliography of Works by Ernest Gaines
Novels:
Catherine Carmier (Vintage Books, 1993)
In their small Louisiana hometown, the relationship between Jackson Bradley and Catherine
Carmier overcomes prejudice, expectations, and family secrets, and ultimately threatens to
shatter the fragile peace that exists between the African-Americans, Cajuns, and whites who
are part of the community. (Published originally in 1964 by Atheneum.)
Of Love and Dust (Vintage Books, 1994)
On a Louisiana plantation in 1948, Jim Kelly, a black laborer, tells what happened when a
young man named Marcus, who is awaiting trial for murder, is bonded out of prison to a
plantation. Marcus soon tangles with Sidney Bonbon, the Cajun overseer, and plots revenge
against him by trying to seduce both Bonbon's black mistress Pauline and his wife Louise.
(Published originally in 1967 by Dial Press.)
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (Bantam, 1972)
This fictional autobiography is set in rural Louisiana and spans more than 100 years of
American history-from the Civil War up through the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s-in
following the life of the former slave, now elderly, Jane Pittman. Heading north after
emancipation, Jane adopts a young boy and survives a massacre by former Confederate
soldiers. Later, after the death of her husband Joe Pittman, Jane becomes a committed
Christian and a respected spiritual leader in her community. Spurred on by the violent death of
a young activist, Jane eventually becomes a strong voice in the Civil Rights movement in her
town. (Published originally in 1971 by Dial Press.)
In My Father's House (Vintage Books, 1992)
In a small, rural Louisiana community, Reverend Phillip Martin-a respected minister, prominent
Civil Rights leader, and devoted family man-must confront and deal with his buried past when
Robert X, a troubled young man, arrives in town. Robert's identity is eventually revealed to be
one of three offspring from an earlier love affair of Phillip's-a family Phillip abandoned more
than 20 years ago. (Published originally in 1978 by Knopf.)
A Gathering of Old Men (Vintage Books, 1992)
When a Cajun farmer is murdered outside the home of an elderly black plantation worker,
several of the other aging black men of the plantation, as well as the white woman who owns
it, rally around, each claiming to be guilty of the murder. As the local sheriff tries to determine
the truth, he must also prevent the murdered man's father from enacting his own version of
justice. (Published originally in 1983 by Knopf.)
A Lesson Before Dying (Vintage Books, 1994)
In a small Louisiana community in the late 1940s, Jefferson, a young black man, is unjustly
convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, who grudgingly returned to his
hometown after college to teach in a small plantation school, is persuaded by his aunt and
Jefferson's godmother to visit Jefferson in jail and teach him pride and dignity before his death.
(Published originally in 1993 by Knopf.)
Short Stories:
Bloodline (Vintage Books, 1997)
In this collection of five stories, Gaines vividly evokes the sugar cane fields, workers' shacks,
and decaying plantation houses of rural Louisiana, and explores the lives of the people who
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live there. The collection includes: "A Long Day in November," "The Sky Is Gray," "Three Men,"
"Bloodline," and "Just Like a Tree." (Published originally in 1968 by Dial Press.)
Children's Books:
A Long Day in November (Dial Press, 1971)
Gaines's only children's book describes a single, eventful day in the life of Sonny, a young boy
who lives with his parents on a Louisiana sugar cane plantation. When Sonny's mother packs
her things, takes him to her mother's house, and announces she's leaving her husband, Sonny
and his father take a journey that includes pastors, plantation workers, and voodoo queens in
an attempt to persuade her to change her mind.
This reading group toolbox was developed by the Washington Center for the Book at the
Seattle Public Library. It was made possible through a grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader's
Digest Fund. The Washington Center for the Book is one of eight member organizations of the
Audiences for Literature Network, a national network of literary centers made possible by the
Fund.
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